The novel opens in December 2001 as Amir, the protagonist, walks around Spreckels Lake in San Francisco. Amir is thinking about a phone call he has just received from his friend, Rahim Khan, who told him, “There is a way to be good again” (2). Watching kites fly at the park, Amir reflects on his childhood in Kabul and his “past of unatoned sins” that changed his life forever (1). He thinks mostly of his closest friend, Hassan, “the harelipped kite runner” (1).

Amir recounts his relationship with Hassan, their days of endless play, Hassan’s deadliness with a slingshot, and the trouble they would get into at Amir’s instigation. Hiding in the branches of a tree, Amir tells Hassan to use his slingshot on the neighbor’s German Shepard, and ever obedient and loyal, Hassan reluctantly complies. Hassan and Amir are not only friends, but they also live together on the grounds of Amir’s father Baba’s home, said to be the “prettiest house in all of Kabul” (4). As Baba’s servants, Hassan and his father, Ali, live behind the house in a mud hut.